Ember
by Psychodahlia
Summary: Ember Recognizes and Teir must find a way to deal with it.


In Teir's mind, home was nothing without the people who made it such. And the person who made it such to him, who loved him despite her mistakes and his accusations, despite the lovers' spats between him and her other mate, despite that he was an outsider, was now happy. Since she was happy, he was happy.

True, that his happiness was not as great as hers seeing as the child was not his, but he was still happy all things said and done.

He knew the healer to be in much the same state. Neither had gifted her with the child and that was a hard piece of meat to swallow.

Of course, the one who had sired the cub was not exactly thrilled either. A child was always welcome to the tribe, but Recognition and its responsibilities were not. The young magic user was little more than a child himself and the sudden Recognition to his chieftess was not how he expected to enter the golden afternoon of elven maturity.

Teir leaned against the rock of the cave that had been his home for as long as he could remember. It was a quiet, peaceful night with the only sound being Yun's humming from her cave that carried over the holt.

"Hey, Teir!"

So much for silence. The olive skinned hunter smiled at the youth he secretly envied. "Pool." It was the usual acknowledgement. Teir might be jealous but he did not dislike. In truth, his jealousy was mixed with pity. Elven youth should be spent with lovemates and the sweet tenderness of lovemaking. Recognition was something to dream about, wonder about, look forward to, and one day experience. That wondering of what was to come would never occur to Pool and Teir couldn't help but feel a little sorry about that.

Pool climbed up on the rock and settled beside his mentor. It was something they did every now and then, lie back on a rock somewhere and watch the stars. Sometimes they talked, but more often they just enjoyed each other's company in silence. It was amusing to Teir that the youth could do this as though nothing had happened.

For a while the two simply sat, star gazing. Or rather, Pool was stargazing while Teir was thinking. It was Pool that spoke first.

"I didn't mean to."

Teir stared at him. He didn't need to be told what Pool hadn't meant to do. What was really bothersome was that his jealousy had been so obvious that the cub had noticed. He had been avoiding letting his emotions get the best of him and that he had instead been so transparent was embarrassing.

"Recognition can't be helped." That was true. Not that Teir was an expert on Recognition exactly, but he'd heard enough about it to know that it was never (or rarely as Tyleet's parents had proved) chosen. He knew there was no blame.

"Yeah, but…" The dark haired magic user sat up and his braids swung back and forth. His hair was slightly longer than his grandsire's, but he wore it in a similar style. Two braids framing his face with an additional one sloping down the back of his head. It reminded Teir of Redlance, who always seemed to radiate gentleness and calm. It was part of the reason he liked Pool.

Even if Pool was anything but calm. Especially now. "I don't love her."

That wasn't a surprise. Ember was older than Pool and that age coupled with her responsibilities as chief made her tougher than anyone with his youth would want to be with.

Teir shrugged. "It's not about love." It wasn't. Recognition had struck and typically, it had not given any thought to the parents, only the cub. Love had nothing to do with it.

Pool left and Teir was alone again. He politely refused invitations to a hunt and remained at his rock, staring at the sky. He lay there, musing, for some time.

"You!" The sudden demand for attention startled him, as did the one who said it. Teir had been so lost in his thoughts he had failed to notice the wolf chieftess creep up on him. 'Idiot.' He chided himself. He should have been more aware.

"Firehair?" He questioned, unsure what the look on her face meant.

"Get up!" She reached down and gripped his arm to haul him to his feet. "You and Mender have been moping around long enough! It's time to hunt."

Moping….? Had they been moping? Teir couldn't speak for the healer but he knew it wasn't the norm for him to mope and sulk.

It also wasn't the norm for his lifemate to Recognize some child barely off his mother's breast and give birth to his cub.

By Rake's rift, he had been moping. As realization dawned on him about his behavior another revelation also hit.

"It is time to hunt, but not for you, Lifebearer. Your cub needs his mother whole and well." A mother shouldn't put herself in harms way. Little Cloudchaser needed his mother close by.

Ember growled like the wolf she was. "I haven't hunted for two turns of the seasons! Cloudchaser is with Tyleet and Pike and Scouter said they saw a herd of Big Horn down by the river. My spear is hungry!" She grinned when she said it.

Teir decided that accompanied by a healer and himself a mother wouldn't be in harms way. "Let me get my bow…"

Mender was waiting outside their cave, blond hair almost shining against the darkness. "She wants to hunt."

Teir passed him and began searching for his bow. The cave was messy as its occupants had been kept busy with the new arrival these past three days. "So I've discovered." He found his bow and began searching for his quiver. "If the chieftess wishes to hunt, she'll hunt."

"And she'll drag us along with her." Mender arched an eyebrow and for a moment the two stood staring at each other as they considered how deep their relationship with Ember and each other went. Deep enough that they were as well trained as a couple of human pets. The tension broke and both chuckled before Teir shouldered his quiver and they went to find Ember.

The hunt was sweet, the kind where you could feel your blood pulsing through every spore of your body. Where you could see your spear enter the flesh of the animal and you knew your cub would sleep well fed that night. The whole tribe would howl and a tale of one of the eleven chiefs would be sung while the humans would whisper in their pathetic little broken down huts of what the spirits were up to.

Teir couldn't help but unleash a howl on the way back to the holt. Mender joined while Ember threw back her head and laughed as she hadn't laughed in two turns of the seasons. Her bright red curls shook when she finally gave in to her animal instinct to let herself be heard and known as a wolf. Warm, brown-gold neck arched back as she let loose her heritage and howled for all she was worth. Two Big Horns and three weary, but exhilarated hunters. Life was good.

Life got better as night turned to into day. Lovemaking. The sheer passion of it was enough to drive all three of them crazy and Teir felt the sweat trickle down his check and couldn't remember the last time lust and base want sent shivers down his spine the way it did now. Then when it was over the three collapsed in a pile of sweat.

"The two of you going to stop moping around now?" Over the past few years Ember had gotten tougher. More warlike. She didn't tolerate sulking and acting stupid. Especially not from these two.

Teir could understand that. Stay in the now, if she was with the two of them then she and Pool had obviously decided not to lifemate. He glanced at Mender and the two males nodded. You have our word, Firehair.

The healer's sending was more playful. I dunno. If we do sulk, will this happen again? Laughter. It was good to hear it.

Ember wapped him. Only if you do it to yourself, Healer!

Don't tell him that, it'll give him ideas and then we'll never be able to 'play' with his healing powers. Teir grinned and rolled out of the way before Mender could hit him.

Ember sat up and began looking for her top. Play nice you two.

Mender and Teir exchanged looks. On one condition. We'll stop moping and get along and all that on one condition. Teir sent.

What's that?

Mender slung an arm around his former romantic rival in a rare gesture of affection and held out his hand. Lifemates?

Her response brought smiles to their faces and the rest of the day was spent in their cave, affirming their want and love for each other.

In Teir's mind home was nothing without the people that made it such. Now that the two people who made it such for him were happy, so was he.


End file.
